Commodity, goods and commercial vehicle flows are critical in different ways at urban and regional scales. The flows of commodities are most important at the intercity level, while vehicle movements dominate concerns at the urban scale. Appropriate sampling frames are of different effectiveness and relevance at each scale, and the major alternatives are considered. Surveys of commercial, freight and goods vehicle movements in urban areas are assessed, and the limitations of survey methods for urban applications demonstrated using the example of Greater Sydney, Australia. While direct matrix estimation processes can produce vehicle flows from link counts, the practical need for greater details of the vehicle loads, types and commodity movements requires a combination of different types of information and data to be collected and used. The strategies required to collect and exploit such diverse data sources in an integrated manner are illustrated, and the requirements to extend the methods currently used to build origin-destination movement matrices for commercial, freight and commodity movements to meet these needs are considered. (A)
Abstract